Quarry Bank

Coordinates: 52°28′20″N 2°06′28″W / 52.4721°N 2.1078°W / 52.4721; -2.1078

Quarry Bank is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England, which exists within the Brierley Hill DY5 postal district.

Locally, the name is often pronounced, "Quarry Bonk" (In Black Country Dialect) The Black Country Bugle local newspaper

Originally the area was a rural place, a remote part of the parish of Kingswinford, included in Pensnett Chase. The earliest settlements in Quarry Bank were smallholdings, where an industrial worker such as a nailer lived. Early industrial development took place the early 17th century around the Cradley Forge.

Quarry Bank acquired its own parish status in September 1844. It had an urban sanitory authority and so became an urban district of Staffordshire from 1894. However, in 1934, it amalgamated with the Brierley Hill urban district. This became part of the county borough of Dudley in 1966 and then the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in West Midlands since 1974.

William Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank

William Thomas Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank, PC (born Liverpool, Lancashire, 28 October 1928), usually known as William Rodgers but also often known as Bill Rodgers, was one of the "Gang of Four" of senior British Labour Party politicians who defected to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He subsequently helped to lead the SDP into the merger that formed the Liberal Democrats, and later served as that party's leader in the House of Lords.

Early life

Rodgers was educated at Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool and at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was general secretary of the Fabian Society 1953–1960 and a councillor on St. Marylebone Borough Council 1958-62. He also fought a byelection at Bristol West in 1957.

Member of Parliament

Rodgers first entered the British House of Commons at a by-election in 1962, and served in Labour Governments under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, becoming Secretary of State for Transport in Callaghan's Cabinet in 1976. Within the Labour Party he was known for being a highly effective organiser around centrist causes such as multilateral nuclear disarmament and Britain's membership of the EEC. He held the post until Labour's defeat in the 1979 general election. From 1979 to 1981 he was Shadow Defence Secretary. With Labour drifting to the left, Rodgers joined Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins and David Owen in forming the Social Democratic Party in 1981. He led the negotiations on the split of seats with the Liberals for the SDP side and his decision to go public on the difficulties encountered has often been blamed for starting the Alliance's slide in the opinion polls. On the other hand, only three seats eventually saw rival Liberal and Alliance candidates in the 1983 General Election so his tactics were in that sense successful.

William Rodgers (disambiguation)

William or Bill Rodgers may refer to:

See also